WINNIPEG — Chris Tweten is a 23-year old lifelong Winnipegger, but he’s never voted in an election before in his life.

That is, until he voted to make political newcomer Brian Bowman Winnipeg’s newest mayor in Wednesday night’s civic election.

“It’s the first time the elections really hit home for me,” he said. “I felt previous elections wouldn’t make a difference in my life.”

Bowman upset frontrunner, and expected winner Judy Wasylycia-Leis, with a strong campaign that garnered 47 percent of the vote, compared to Wasylycia-Leis’s 25 percent of the vote.

“I didn’t expect to win,” said Bowman. I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. We were working to the last minute.”

“Most people involved in my campaign had never been involved in a campaign before.”

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Bowman noted that although the campaign was hard work, the real work was only just beginning. He says his first order of business will be to hire a new CAO, and start moving forward.

Bowman’s promise to finish bus rapid transit was one of the first things many supporters gathered at the Inn at the Forks noted as the campaign promise they found most exciting.

“Bus rapid transit is something we need to see through,” said Jody Sie, one of Bowman’s supporters attending the gathering. “It’s one of the things we need to make Winnipeg the world class city it deserves to be.”